Political comedian Mark Thomas comes to Dorset (From Dorset Echo)

Political comedian Mark Thomas comes to Dorset

9:33am Tuesday 16th June 2009 in

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COMEDIAN and fearless political commentator Mark Thomas brings a show with a difference to Bridport Arts Centre this week. Each audience gets to vote on and nominate a policy to make Britain a better place and then Mark will hit the road and try to make it work.

From attempting to buy a member of the House of Lords to helping bankers to experience destitution, from a maximum wage to hunting down dog owners who don’t clear up their hounds pile, Mark is out to find the ideas to shape our word. He explained: “One of the ones we have had is whether there should be an age of consent for people joining religion.

“But my favourite one recently, which sadly didn’t get chosen, was that bailiffs should be middle class. The general feeling was that they would get to a house and think that nothing there was worth taking, or as one woman said, they would hear someone’s accent and then clear off.”

A stand-up comedian for the past 24 years, Mark has wanted to be a comic since the age of 16 although his father was not so keen on the idea at first.

He started off working during the miners’ strike and his latest campaign is to threaten legal action unless a full transparent review is urgently ordered into the scandal of MPs expenses.

While this rumbles on, he is concentrating on getting ordinary people to start putting forward ideas to improve their own nation.

“It is all about getting people off their arses and thinking about things,” he said. “It’s about getting them out there and doing something.

“So here is your chance to propose your policy or policies for the future. All I want is an idea that you think will improve our lives, it can be silly, serious, economic, plagiarised, original, bold, simple, complex, obvious or morbid. Fill in the form, bring it along to the show and hand it in.”

It’s the Stupid Economy is at Bridport Arts centre on Thursday June 18, at 8pm. Tickets are £14 from 01308 424204 or bridport-arts.com